Why Some People Become Jerks the Moment They are Promoted to Management

Have you ever known someone who seemed to turn into a jerk the moment they were promoted to management?

If you ask employees if they know any managers who are jerks, they’ll tell you there are a lot of them. But don’t worry; I’m sure you are not a jerk! In fact most of the managers who employees think are “jerks” aren’t jerks either. They just appear that way to the employees.

This article explains why some managers seem to turn into jerks the moment they are promoted to management.

Several years ago I was consulting with a large casino property in Las Vegas. I was asked to come in and assess why they were having such significant customer service problems in their coffee shop. The employees had bad attitudes and it reflected heavily in their service. To my surprise the primary cause of the service problem in the restaurant was a toaster — or, rather, the lack of one. The employees were upset with management because there was only one toaster in the coffee shop, which wasn’t enough. They needed another toaster. But management refused to buy an additional toaster.

Having only one toaster meant the food servers had to compete for the use of the single toaster. The food servers were responsible for making the toast while the cooks prepared their food order. Usually, however, the food was cooked before the toast was done because the food servers were still waiting in line around the crowded toaster. Consequently, the food would get cold while the food servers prepared the toast. Then when the customers complained about the food being cold, the food servers had to take the food back to be re-cooked. This made the cooks angry. The cooks often yelled at the food servers for not getting the food out fast enough. The food servers yelled at the cooks to stop yelling at them. The food servers also yelled at each other as they once again started the cycle of competing for the toaster. This, of course, made everyone want to yell at management.

Full-scale battles broke out around the toaster as food servers accused other food servers of crowding in before them, or, worse yet, stealing their toast. The employees hated coming to work. They hated cooks who were angry at them all the time. They hated their fellow employees who would stoop so low as to steal toast. But mostly they hated management for being “too cheap” to buy a new toaster.

BETTY GETS PROMOTED

Now imagine the following scene. One day a management position becomes available in this coffee shop and one of the food servers, Betty, gets promoted. All of the other food servers are happy for Betty. They congratulate her. They tell her what a wonderful job she will do. They throw a celebration party in her honor. They are happy for her.

But mostly the employees are happy for themselves because they know that now that Betty is in management, she’ll finally get them a new toaster. Betty knows how bad they need the toaster. She’s a former food server. She’s one of them. She knows what it is like to work in the trenches. She won’t forget her friends! She’ll get them what they need.

But then something eerie happens to Betty. Somehow, overnight, she changes. Like the victim of an unseen vampire, bitten by management’s bite, she instantly becomes one of “them.” She becomes a manager. Betty turns into a jerk!

A week after Betty’s promotion there is no new toaster. The employees are antsy. They expected Betty to get them a new toaster right away. They’re surprised Betty hasn’t done it already, but they’re confident Betty will get the toaster soon.

Another week goes by. Still no toaster.

“What about the toaster?” the employees ask.

Betty gives them the typical management answer: “I’m working on it.”

More weeks pass. The workers are becoming disgruntled.

“Hey, when are we going to get a toaster?” they query. “You haven't forgotten us, have you?”

“Leave me alone!” Betty huffs. “I’m doing the best I can.”

It’s now months later and still there is no new toaster. The employees gather in small groups and talk about Betty behind her back.

“I can’t believe it,” one says. “I never thought Betty would become one of them. Now that she’s a big-wig she’s forgotten us peons. She hardly even talks to us anymore. Have you noticed how she always hangs out with other managers?”

Suddenly Betty walks in. The workers scatter. Finally one out-spoken employee inquires sarcastically, “So, Betty, do you think you’ll ever get us a toaster?”

“Look!” Betty snaps back. “You just do your job and let me do mine!”

The disgusted employee quickly turns and stomps off. “What a jerk,” he mumbles under his breath.

BETTY HAS CHANGED

What happened to Betty? Why doesn’t she buy the toaster? Why has she isolated herself from people who used to be her friends? Why is she so curt when she speaks to them? Why does she act like such a jerk?

Why? Because something did happen to Betty when she was promoted to management. She didn’t notice it, but it happened almost immediately. And it happens to every new manager.

The moment Betty took on her new role as a supervisor, her PERSPECTIVE changed. Instantly she began to see things from a different view — from a management perspective. She learned how much industrial-grade toasters cost. She found out how minuscule the profit margin is in a restaurant. She was informed of expensive capital improvements that had to be made at the restaurant because of legislated ADA requirements. And she learned of other big-ticket items that needed to be purchased for the coffee shop. Since she was now responsible for balancing her budget, she began to prioritize her expenditures. The toaster was still on her priority list, it just wasn’t as important as it used to seem.

She also was reminded that management had purchased three brand new toasters over the past twelve months. Those toasters needed to be repaired numerous times because the food servers kept breaking them. In their impatience to get their food orders out faster, the employees pushed the conveyor chain on the toaster with a knife, trying to speed it up. This broke the heating element in the toaster. The food servers only had one toaster because they broke the other three.

Betty was reminded that management had warned the food servers several times that management would not continue to replace the toasters if the employees kept breaking them. The employees would have to take better care of the toasters they already had. Now Betty understood why management refused to buy new ones.

Betty’s GOALS also changed when she became a supervisor. As a food server her goals had been pretty simple. She needed to get the food out on time, serve her customers well, and earn enough tips to pay her personal bills.

But as a supervisor, Betty now struggled to ensure the restaurant made a profit. She became concerned about portion control, pilferage, turning the tables, work schedules, inventory levels, equipment maintenance, and numerous other financial matters. The employees were shocked that she now seemed more interested in the bottom-line than in employee morale. To them, she was just like all the other managers. She had become a jerk.

BETTY IS NO LONGER ONE OF US

Betty used to be one of the gang. When Betty was a food server she was just like all the other food servers. She occasionally became silly and played around in the kitchen area. During slow periods she hung out and gossiped with the other workers.

But now whenever Betty saw employees standing around she told them to find something to do. She expected them to clean their duty stations, fill the salt and pepper shakers, stock the supplies, or, even worse, punch out early and go home. Apparently now that she was making supervisor’s pay, she’d forgotten what it was like to have to work every scheduled hour just to make ends meet.

But Betty hadn’t forgotten. It’s just that she now realized she had to focus on other RESPONSIBILITIES and place them above her own personal needs. Now it was her job to make sure the work got done. She expected the employees to work a full eight hours, since that was what they were being paid to do. She was constantly amazed that the employees stood around when there was obvious work to be done. Why did she have to tell them what to do all the time? If they didn’t want to work, they should go home. Betty couldn’t believe how lazy the employees had become. They seemed to be standing around all the time. She wondered whether they were acting this way just to get back at her because she had become the manager instead of one of them. Maybe they were jealous.

BETTY BECOMES ISOLATED

The employees felt Betty had become a snob after she got promoted. She used to be a lot of fun. She joked around with the customers and other workers. Back then, whenever the employees stood around and complained about management, she was right there with them. In fact, she had promised that if she ever became a supervisor she would never act like management did.

But now Betty spent most of her time with those same managers whom she used to joke about. She formed new RELATIONSHIPS and didn’t associate with her old coworkers much any more. When she wasn’t in a meeting with other managers somewhere, or sitting in her office talking to another manager, she was having lunch with them in an area reserved for management only. The food servers couldn’t remember the last time they saw her in the employee cafeteria or break room.

Betty has heard the employees complain about her never being around. But they just don’t realize how busy she is. She doesn’t like going to all of those management meetings, but she has to be there because that’s where she gets the information she needs in order to do her job. She’d like to be able to just stand around like the employees, but she doesn’t have time. Every night she takes work home with her. The employees don’t do that. Maybe if they’d walk in her shoes for awhile they’d realize how hard managers work.

Actually, it’s difficult for Betty to talk to the employees anymore. It’s as if they don’t even speak the same LANGUAGE. The employees only talk about their personal lives and personal problems. They seem totally focused on money. No matter how big their tips are, they never seem satisfied. They complain about their pay and are constantly critical of management.

Betty can’t listen to these criticisms. If she listens but remains silent, the employees will think she agrees with them. And if she tries to explain management’s perspective, the employees will see her as being defensive. Anyway, there are more important things to talk about with the employees — such as customer service, the quality of the food, work station cleanliness, performance standards, and worker tardiness. Betty wonders why she seems to be the only one worried about these things. After all, isn’t that the employees’ job?

BETTY ISN'T HAPPY WITH US

Betty doesn’t get a lot of SATISFACTION from being around the workers. In fact, having to deal with the employees is the least satisfying aspect of her job. She finds that most of her job satisfaction comes from seeing just how productive and profitable she can make her restaurant. She enjoys solving problems and discovering ways to improve the work processes. She likes manipulating the work schedules and monitoring the purchase orders to get the most bangs for the buck. Her personal REWARDS come at the end of each week when she reviews the week’s financial statements and production figures. She loves to see an upward trend and knows that if things continue the way they’re going, she’s likely to get a big bonus at the end of the year.

As Betty sits back and evaluates how she is doing as a new manager she’s pleased with how well she has adjusted to her new role. Almost all of the performance indicators in the coffee shop have gone up since she became the manager. Certainly this was due, in part, to her leadership abilities.

At the same time, she’s surprised at how poorly the employees have responded to her management style. They seemed so happy when she was first promoted. She never expected them to give her so much grief. She is shocked at how quickly their behavior changed after she was promoted. It seemed that the moment she entered management, most of the employees became jerks!

HOW NOT TO BECOME A JERK

Making the transition to management is often difficult no matter how prepared a person believes he or she is for the job. As shown above, the moment a worker is promoted to management, their perspective and goals change. Without realizing it, and with almost no effort on their part, they start thinking less as an employee and more as a manager. Almost automatically they feel personally responsible to ensure the work gets done. Production and financial performance becomes very important to them.

New managers naturally gravitate in their interpersonal relationships toward other managers. They even start to look and sound like them. Some even take up similar recreational activities, such as golf. They dress like managers and talk about the things that are important to managers. Their language changes as they use jargon and acronyms that are foreign to most employees.

New managers usually don’t notice how quickly their job satisfaction shifts away from receiving pleasure while serving customers to being most happy when budget and production goals are met. They subtly change from a people-focus to an emphasis on numbers.

Finally, not only is dealing with employees less satisfying to the manager, but he or she quickly realizes a manager’s rewards usually come not from good employee relations, but from good productivity scores. A good bottom line can hide a multitude of a manager’s employee relations weakness in many organizations. Most managers naturally gravitate to that which gets rewarded, and in most businesses financial performance is the most important indicator of a manager’s worth to the company.

Since this transformation is mostly unconscious and occurs naturally with little or no effort on the part of the new manager, the new supervisor may not recognize how obvious the changes appear to the employees. The manager may feel like he or she hasn’t changed at all. Invariably, to the new manager it seems the employees have changed.

Since most managers are not jerks (they just appear to be), they need to be aware of two important characteristics that will help overcome any false perceptions employees may have about them. These qualities are 1) personal introspection and, 2) the ability to be open and honest in their communication with their employees.

THE ABILITY TO LOOK WITHIN

I believe one of the greatest personal qualities a manager must have is the gift of introspection — the ability to look within oneself to honestly assess how he or she is responding to their new supervisory role.

When a worker becomes a manager, this role change impacts them intellectually, emotionally, and socially. It also may affect them physically and spiritually (one’s personal values and guiding principles).

Some new managers believe once they enter management they are supposed to be smarter than their employees. They feel they should know and understand everything that is going on in the organization. They think they are required to know how to do everyone’s job. They’re supposed to solve any problems that may arise.

When the new manager realizes they don’t know all these things, some managers may become emotionally distressed. Some may unconsciously use an authoritarian tone to mask their insecurities. Others may retreat to previously familiar ground that is more comfortable to them. They may try to retain their “friendship” relationship with their former colleagues.

The change in their relationship with their former coworkers often causes stress for many new managers. They don’t know how to act. They’re afraid if they talk to their former friends, or take them to lunch, it will be viewed as favoritism. So they avoid any contact. This, of course, makes them appear distant or snobbish.

For some new managers, the intellectual, emotional and social conflict of their new role causes physical problems as well. The mental and emotional stress of being a manager may produce anger, fatigue, or even depression. These internal conflicts may also impact their spiritual well-being and challenge long-held values or beliefs. These feelings are difficult to mask and often come out in negative ways as the new manager interacts with the employees.

THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE OPENLY

New managers can minimize the unwanted affects of their management role by communicating openly with their employees. Through introspection they can become aware of how their role change is affecting them. This will help them understand and, if necessary, challenge their perspectives and beliefs about their role as a manger.

For example, they can challenge the assumption that a manager must be the expert in every situation. They can overcome their fear of fraternizing with employees by being conscious about deep-seeded biases or favoritism. They can become more aware of how they are responding emotionally as they face the many management challenges that arise.

For the most part, employees generally respond well when managers openly talk to them about the struggles they’re facing in their new role. Managers who are honest will tell their employees when they don’t know something and will solicit the expertise of the workers. Mature managers don’t expect to know everything, but, rather, utilize the vast talents of their employees to achieve the goals of their work unit. If the manager is open with his or employees, normally the employees will help the manager determine the best way to interact with them to avoid showing favoritism.

By far the worst thing new managers can do is to become isolated from their employees. Unfortunately, this natural isolation begins when the manager takes on his or her new role. New managers immediately feel different than and apart from the employees. This difference keeps them from talking to the workers and causes a gulf between management and the employees.

Sadly, there is a natural tendency in human beings to move in the opposite direction from that which is right. For example, the time when a married couple is in conflict and their marriage seems to be in jeopardy is when they should move toward each other the most. They obviously need to communicate more and spend more time with each other in order to resolve their differences. They need to be more open and listen to each other more. But instead of getting closer to each other, most struggling couples naturally move away from each other, refuse to talk to one another, and close themselves off in separate rooms. Consequently their marriage fails because they moved in the opposite direction from that which was right.

Likewise, when an employee on a work team is struggling, the other members of the team invariably know about it. But instead of moving toward the employee to offer constructive feedback that might help the struggling worker improve, colleagues withdraw as far away as possible from the employee. They isolate the employee and refuse to associate with them, lest they be guilty by association. Eventually the employee fails because they did not receive the support of their fellow workers.

New managers need to fight this natural tendency to withdraw. They need to step toward their employees. They need to spend more time with them, to talk to them more, to listen to them more, and to value the worker’s input more.

New managers who are introspective enough to understand how they and their employees are responding to the manager’s new role will know that open and honest communication is the key to their future success. They’ll realize that soliciting help from their employees and being receptive to the employees’ feedback is one of the best ways to ensure they succeed in their managerial role.

Managers who do this are respected and trusted by their subordinates. These managers are not seen as jerks. They eventually gain the support and commitment of their employees and accomplish the significant results they were expected to achieve when they were promoted. In other words, they get the satisfaction and rewards of management without isolating themselves from their employees.

Customers Will Pay a Premium Price for Superior Service

Anyone who knows me knows I am a cheapskate. I have a real hard time spending money on myself. I’m one of those people who will look for the lowest price and buy that item even if the quality isn’t quite what I want.

At least that’s what I’ve always thought. Then something happened to open my eyes to an interesting concept.

Since I travel so much I use a laundry service to wash and press my shirts, pants and suits. Fortunately there is a cleaner just around the corner from my home.

Several months ago I realized this particular cleaner is fairly expensive. My wife told me I could get my shirts cleaned for almost 50% less than what I am paying. But I refuse to change, regardless of the cost savings. At first I thought my hesitancy to switch was out of convenience. The other cleaner is several blocks away, while this cleaner is just around the corner. But when I went to my current cleaner the other day it dawned on me why I am willing to pay more and stick with the cleaner I’m using.

As I pulled up to the cleaners the shop owner saw me, pulled my ticket, and started spinning the conveyor belt looking for my clean clothes. When I came through the door she smiled broadly and said: “Good morning, Mr. Mac.” She also had a new ticket ready for my dirty load of clothes and had written my name on the top of the ticket. She did all of this after recognizing my car when I pulled into the parking lot.

When I walked out of the cleaner I had a big smile on my face. I knew the way I was feeling at that moment was the reason why I'm willing to pay more for my cleaning. I like the way they make me feel. They know me. They know how I like my clothes cleaned. They make me feel special. They act as if I’m an important customer and that they want my business. I don’t know if they treat every customer like that (I like to think that it’s just me), but I certainly notice it and am willing to pay a premium price because of it.

It doesn’t take much to wow your customers. You just have to notice. Notice who they are and what they like. All you have to do to earn their loyalty is pay attention and do a few minor things that make a difference. It’s the little things that make people want to come back.

The other day, while on a business trip back East, I was in a restaurant waiting for my dinner. I normally order room service when I travel alone but the hotel where I was staying did not have this service. I hate eating alone in a restaurant because it’s boring sitting there staring at the empty table.

On this occasion another waiter (not my own) noticed that I was alone and that I had been waiting for some time for my food. He came over and, in a concerned voice, said: “One of our cooks called in sick today so our service is slower than usual. Can I get you a newspaper to read while you wait?”

Needless to say, I was impressed. I gave him a tip when he came back with the paper.

Several years ago I read a survey where people were asked to identify the one thing that would cause them to take their business elsewhere. The results were surprising. Only 20% of the respondents said they would take their business elsewhere if they were treated “rudely.” But 86% of those surveyed said they would stop doing business with a company if they were treated “indifferently” — as if their patronage was not important.

Most customers are more than willing to pay a premium price for service providers who simply notice them and then proactively respond to their needs without prompting. My cleaner has convinced me that this is true.

Why Feedback Needs to be Immediate

Every manager knows he or she should give an employee immediate feedback when the worker performs below expectations. But sometimes managers fail to do what they know they should do because they are afraid of the reaction they may get when they confront the employee.

Managers who delay giving feedback to their employees do a disfavor to all concerned. They cause more problems by not confronting the employee than they would by confronting the employee immediately.

When a rocket goes off course the best time to give it feedback is as soon as the discrepancy occurs. If caught early, the course can be corrected with a short burst of the rocket thrusters. The longer the rocket goes off course the more fuel it will require to get it back on the right trajectory. And, if caught to late, there may not be enough fuel to correct the deviation. When this happens the rocket has to be destroyed.

The situation is the same regarding employee performance. When an employee goes off course the best time to give him or her feedback is as soon as the digression occurs. When caught early very little energy is required to make the correction. The longer the employee travels down the wrong path the more energy it will take to change the employee’s performance. Not only will the employee have to do more to change, but the manager also must exert a lot of energy to get the employee to make the course correction.

Managers who delay giving feedback to off-target employees cause problems for themselves. When an employee has been doing the wrong thing for an extended time, and then is finally confronted with the error, the worker is more likely to respond poorly to the feedback than they would have had the feedback been given earlier. Belated feedback incites a great deal of resistance. The employee typically retorts with such comments as: “How come you didn’t tell me this earlier”; “This is the way I’ve always done it”; “This is how I was trained to do it”; or “There’s nothing wrong with the way I’ve been doing it.”

When feedback is delayed it invariably causes the employee to focus on the path they have been on rather than the corrective path they need to follow. They argue about where they have been rather than accept where they need to go.

Late feedback also causes the employee to focus on the manager rather than focus on his or herself. They often accuse the manager of being wrong rather than accepting that their own performance is wrong. Instead of using their energy to make the course correction they waste time and energy fighting the feedback they’re given. Rather than immediately getting back on track they stand their ground and defend the course they are on.

Immediate feedback is much easier on both the employee and the manager. The earlier the feedback is given to the employee the easier it is to accept the correction and the less energy it takes to change one’s behavior.

The sooner the manager delivers the feedback the less likely the employee will respond negatively to the feedback and use their energy to attack the manager rather than attacking the problem. Immediate feedback gets immediate positive results.

You Cannot Lead From Behind

My wife likes me to go grocery shopping with her. Since I travel so much as a consultant any time we can spend together is quality time.

I really enjoy going to the store with my wife. She lets me push the cart. It gives me that false sense that I’m in charge. But I know who the real boss is. She’s the one who has the list. She knows what we need to buy. She knows where we are going in the store.

For some reason, however, my wife insists on following me behind the cart. I keep telling her she cannot lead from behind. I cannot follow her if she is not out in front. Every time she tries to lead from behind I have to stop, turn around, and ask her where to go next. This stop and go shopping is very inefficient. And that can really irritate someone like me who is an efficiency expert.

Just as my wife cannot lead from behind at the grocery store, so too managers cannot lead from behind their desk. It is impossible to lead from the back office or behind the wizard’s curtain. Leaders cannot lead from behind. Leaders must be out in front of their people. Leaders must be ahead of those they intend to lead. Leaders must show their followers the way by stepping out in front and leading by example.

True leaders know where they are going. They can see the path ahead because they are out front on point. They know the hurdles and barriers that must be surmounted. They also know where others must go to achieve the desired objective.

Leading is not the same as managing. Much has been written about the differences between managing and leading. There are different competencies for a leader than for a manager. But one major difference that separates leaders from managers is where their activities take place.

Managers can manage from their office. They can plan, organize, direct, delegate, control, communicate, and make decisions from behind a desk. Managers can do administrative tasks and even manage the performance of their employees from behind a closed door. It’s entirely possible to manage a business without ever leaving the office. But it’s not possible to lead people, or a business, from behind a desk.

Leadership requires being on the front-line. True leaders want to be out on the shop floor among the workers. They want to talk to customers and employees. Real leaders place high value on face-to-face, personal contact with the people that matter most -- customers and employees.

Leaders don’t rely on reports or formal communication channels alone to get information. They leave their office as often as possible so they can see and hear things for themselves. They learn a lot by mingling with the “troops.” They position themselves out in the trenches where they can better sense how the battle is progressing.

Real leaders understand the motivational value of visible management. They pitch in, help out, and carry their own load when needed. They know employees respect leaders who work on the front-line rather than work in an ivory tower. That's how you can tell who the real leaders are in an organization. They are the ones who are out front leading the way.

How to Develop Competent Employees

One of the great challenges for managers is how to separate the competent workers from the incompetent, the capable from the incapable, and the willing workers from the unwilling. A manager cannot manage an employee's performance until they know in which category the employee falls.

Managers may feel that they know which workers are the good ones based upon their observations of the employees’ performance, behavior and attitude. But highly competent workers sometimes mask their goodness in off-purpose conduct. Conversely, totally incompetent employees can often fool managers with a behavioral façade that makes them look like they are doing the right things.

My experience has been that most employees have the ability (or could have the ability) to be totally competent performers. Only a very small percentage of employees are incompetent. Unfortunately, some managers actually create incompetent employees because of their own actions or inactions. Sometimes good employees become bad employees because of bad managers.

The key to creating competent employees is to determine where to focus one’s intervention. When employees are not performing to standard as expected, the manager must discover the root cause of the performance failure. The supervisor must have the ability to separate symptoms from the real cause of the incompetence.

Several years ago I worked for a company that created internal “consulting” groups consisting of experts from each functional area within the company. There were teams of consultants from operations, finance, marketing, information technology, human resources and other areas of the company. These internal consultants were organized into what were called Strategic Strike Teams (SST). Like airline crash investigators, SSTs were sent out at a moment’s notice whenever and wherever there were problems in the company that fell within that team’s specialty. The job of the SST was to quickly troubleshoot the problem, find a solution, and fix the problem so it didn’t happen again.

I was the leader of one of those SSTs. My team was the “human performance” SST. Whenever there was a mass failure of human performance in any department at any level in any of our company subsidiaries, my team was sent out to turn the situation around. We literally had our bags packed, ready to go the minute we were notified there was a performance problem somewhere in the company.

The Six Block Model

After many months investigating human performance “crashes,” I noticed a pattern develop as to why those performance failures occurred. I discovered the root of human performance problems was consistent from company to company, department to department, or person to person. It didn’t matter which type of business the company was in, where it was located, the skill or education level of the employees, or any other characteristics. Human performance failure always seemed to be caused by the same root issues.

From these experiences I developed a model that identifies the root cause of human performance failure. I call my tool the Six Block Model because there are only six primary reasons why people fail to perform to standard. The Six Block Model lists these root causes in the priority order in which the cause of the performance problem can be found.

Invariably the primary cause of most human incompetence can be found in block one. By far the greatest percentage of performance failures (80% to 90%) are caused by block one issues. Therefore managers should always look first in block one to find the root cause of an employee’s performance failure.

If the performance discrepancy is not found after assessing all of the issues in block one, the manager next should look for the cause in block two, then block three, and so on to block six. The probability of finding the real cause of the performance problem is greatest in the first block and decreases exponentially through the five other blocks. Very few performance problems are actually caused by block six issues. Yet, historically, block six is where most managers begin their search for the problem.

Block six issues include the MOTIVATION, MORALE, ATTITUDE, or WORK ETHIC of the employee.

The vast majority of managers attribute poor performance to motivation problems. They typically describe the reason for a performance failure by saying such things as, “the employee is not motivated,” “they don’t care,” “they have a bad attitude,” “people don’t want to work hard these days,” or “you just can’t find good employees today.” Invariably these statements are wrong. Low motivation or morale, a lousy attitude or a poor work ethic usually are symptoms of a problem, not the problem itself.

When I hear managers make statements like these I ask the manager to identify the employee in their work area who they feel has the poorest motivation, the lowest morale, the worst attitude, or the laziest work ethic. I then ask them to describe what that employee’s behavior was like on the first day they were employed at the company. I ask if the employee seemed excited about their job when they came to work on that first day. Did they seem to have a good attitude about being there? Were they anxious to prove themselves as a good worker? Did they want to perform well? In most cases I receive and affirmative answer to these questions.

If that is the case, I point out, obviously at one time the now poor performing employee was motivated, did have high morale and a positive attitude, and was willing to work hard. Consequently, if the employee now lacks motivation, has low morale or a negative attitude, or doesn’t seem to want to work, something must have happened to the employee since coming to work in the manager’s department. In other words, the root cause can be found in something that happened after the first day the employee came to work. Whatever caused the employee to lose his or her motivation, morale, attitude, or work ethic happened at work. The root cause is more likely to be found somewhere at work rather than somewhere inside the employee. In other words, the employee doesn't have a problem; the company has a problem! It is not a motivation, morale, attitude or work ethic problem intrinsic to the employee.

Once I point out the employee's behavior changed after they started work at the company, most managers reluctantly accept the idea that the cause of the employee’s performance failure is not motivation, morale, attitude, or a poor work ethic. Grudgingly they accept that the root cause of the employee’s “incompetence” is not in block six.

Invariably the managers then will shift the reason for the performance failure to issues that can be found in the fifth block.

“Okay. You may be right,” the managers usually concede. “It may not be a motivation problem. I just think the employee is stupid. They can’t seem to do anything right. They don’t have any common sense.”

These statements describe causes that would be found in block five – CAPACITY. Capacity issues deal with whether or not the employee has the physical or mental capacity to perform at acceptable levels.

In reality few employees lack the physical abilities or mental capacity to do the job for which they were hired. I usually can stop managers from using capacity as the excuse for poor performance by asking them how many employees they have hired who actually fall into the “idiot” category on an IQ test. Fearing being accused of falling into that category themselves for hiring the employee, few managers admit to hiring idiots.

Most employees are intelligent enough to do the job they were hired to do. Otherwise they would not have passed the job interview. Likewise, most employees are physically capable of doing the job as well.

Blocks five and six are the last two places managers should look for causes of incompetence simply because they are rarely the primary cause of the problem. Managers should concentrate their performance improvement assessment in the first four blocks, starting with block one. These four blocks focus on the conditions surrounding the employee. Managers will be more successful in finding the root cause of the performance problem by looking at the work environment, rather than trying to perform some type of psychotherapy regarding the employee’s motives or capacity.

Block One

The fact is most performance problems are found in block one. The number one reason why people fail to perform to the manager's expectations is because they lack the INFORMATION necessary to perform well. They don’t know what performance is wanted.

To achieve exceptional results employees must know exactly what is expected of them. They need to clearly understand their job and what results they’re expected to achieve. They need to know the goals and direction of the company, as well as the goals of their specific position in the company. They need clarity of their role, their boundaries and their authority level. They also need feedback regarding both how to perform well and how well they are performing.

Unfortunately many managers actually create incompetent employees by not providing their workers with the information they need to do their jobs well. Too often they fail to tell employees what is expected of them or fail to hold them accountable for specified results. They don’t tell their employees how well (or poorly) they are performing. Or, worse yet, they give people misleading or unclear information about their performance.

Clear direction and expectations combined with reliable performance feedback are the best indicators of whether or not employees will exhibit competent performance. To perform well employees need significant, informative, and reliable guidance both as to how one should perform and how well one is performing.

Block one, the information block, includes everything that deals with guiding employee performance and providing feedback on that performance. The simple act of providing workers with clear information about the goals of their job has more potential for creating competent employees than any other tactic. When goals are clearly defined, objectives set, and work parameters established, employees confidently step forward and accomplish valuable results.

A stated before, the root cause of an employee’s incompetence can be found in block one more than 80% of the time. Managers will have greater success turning employee performance around by focusing on the information provided to the employee.

Block Two

If the root cause of the performance failure is not an information problem, the manager next should look for the cause to the problem in block two.

If an employee has all of the information she needs to perform well and still is not performing to standard, the reason may be because she lacks the TOOLS or RESOURCES needed to achieve satisfactory results.

A worker is only as good as the tools one has at their disposal. A Front Desk Clerk in a hotel cannot serve the customers in line any faster than the speed of one's computer or the time it takes to program the room key on the key-coding machine. A Pot Washer cannot work any faster or clean the dishes any better than the dishwashing machine he uses. A Secretary is limited by the capacity of the software on his computer. A Car Rental Agent can be no faster than the speed of the printer she is using, regardless of her efficiency level.

Resources entail such things as staff, time, facilities, materials, and the dollars need to obtain the resources. If there isn’t enough staff to perform the work to satisfactory levels, the work will not get done no matter how motivated the few employees might be. When there are seven teller windows in the bank and only two tellers, the line will be long even if the two tellers are exemplars of customer service.

Likewise, a manager who is overwhelmed with work will not take the time to write well-thought-out and thorough performance appraisals of her employees when she has no time, regardless of how well the manager is trained on the proper way to do performance evaluations. People who do not have time to do something seldom do it, even if they have the good intention to do so.

Companies who lack the money to hire the appropriate amount of staff or provide the tools and materials needed to do the job will find their workers perform at lower production levels than those companies who do provide proper tools and resources.

Employees who are overworked or working in cramped quarters with faulty or non-existent equipment may initially have the internal motivation to perform well despite these shortcomings. But over time their enthusiasm will decrease unless the situation is rectified. Eventually the struggle to perform well in unsatisfactory conditions will lead to low motivation, poor morale, a negative attitude, and a diminished work ethic (block six).

Block Three

If employees have the information, tools, and resources necessary to perform well and yet still are performing below satisfactory levels, chances are they lack the INCENTIVE to do so. This is the third block.

Incentives constitute the monetary and non-monetary rewards that cause people to move toward a specified behavior. Even though an employee may have the information, tools and resources one needs to perform competently, there may not be significant enough incentive to induce the employee to perform to standard. Employees must sense that work-related rewards and recognition are directly connected to and contingent upon good performance. Workers who are paid poorly perform poorly. Salaries and wages do not have to be high, but they must be adequate and appropriate to the labor performed. There also needs to be ongoing rewards and recognition to keep people motivated. Inequitable wages or insufficient rewards are a disincentive to those who wish to work hard.

Sometimes natural disincentives in the workplace can override a manager’s positive effort in the other blocks of the model. For example, high potential employees often are disincented by slothful fellow workers who tell them to slow down because they’re making the less productive employees look bad. Marginal workers may tell motivated workers that hard work will get them nowhere. Bad workers often tell good workers their effort will not be recognized or appreciated by management. Unions, in many instances, disincent workers from maximizing their effort in order to create the illusion that more union laborers are needed.

Managers themselves can disincent their workers by failing to recognize the contributions of their employees. The greatest motivator of people is verbal praise. Yet too many managers fail to effectively utilize this easy and inexpensive communication tool.

Managers can also dampen the enthusiasm of their employees when they give blanket praise or across-the-board pay raises that reward poor performers as well as the good. Managers make lose the commitment of good workers when the exemplary employees see slothful performers go unchecked or undisciplined.

Incentives need to be directly related to performance. Exemplary performance should be praised and recognized, while poor performance should be corrected. Non-monetary rewards and recognition should be used copiously. Career development and other advancement opportunities also should be tied to performance. Nothing disincents employees faster than seeing poor performing or incompetent employees promoted to higher levels of responsibility. Incompetent managers are the greatest disincentive to competent employees.

One might wonder why incentives are listed in the third position instead of first. Unions declare that the only way to get workers to produce more is to pay them more. But this is contrary to human behavior. There are countless examples of employees who have left a company to go work for another company for less money. Likewise, there are numerous stories of employees who have stayed with a company even though they were offered more money to go somewhere else. In both cases the employees worked for less money when they could have made more. When asked why they left a company or stayed with a company the answer often has nothing to do with money. It usually has to do with block one and/or block two issues. They left because they could not get the information, tools or resources they needed to succeed -- and they felt demotivated because of it. Or they stayed because they had all of the information, tools and resources they needed to win at work -- and they felt motivated because of it. Their motivation, morale, attitude and work ethic was affected by the preponderance of, or lack thereof, of the information, tools and resources needed to perform well.

Looking at it another way, managers can offer to triple the salary of workers without adding tools and resources in order to get short-staffed employees to work longer and harder. And, initially, employees may jump at the offer. However the employees will eventually become exhausted and burned out from the lack of staff, the added hours, and the time spent away from their families. In such circumstances employees quickly learn that time off and quality time with their family is far more important than the incentive of three times their pay.

Block Four

Now on to the fourth block. If an employee has the information, tools, resources and adequate incentive to perform well, yet they still are not performing to standard, perhaps the worker doesn't know how to do the job right. In such case the employee requires the proper TRAINING to perform to standard.

Amazingly, sending employees to training seems to be management's solution to every performance problem. Whenever employees are not performing well, management cries, “Send them to training.” Yet, more often than not employees return from training without being “fixed.” This is because very few performance problems are caused by a lack of skill in the employees. Most performance problems can be found in the previous three blocks. In such cases training is a waste of time.

Customer service training is an excellent example of people being sent to training when training is not the cause of the performance problem. Many companies send their employees to customer service training because they’ve discovered their employees are not smiling or being friendly around the customers. The managers think that by sending the employees to training they will come back from the session smiling more and acting friendlier. But lack of training is not the problem. How does one know? If the non-smiling and non-friendly employees have ever smiled or been friendly anywhere at anytime, then they already know how to smile and be friendly. They don’t need to go to training to learn how to do what they already know how to do. Since they can smile and be friendly, the question isn’t one of skill; it’s a question of why they are not doing what they already know how to do.

Perhaps they are not smiling or being friendly because they did not know it was expected of them. This would be a block one (information) issue. Maybe they’re not smiling because they’re frustrated because of a slow computer or other faulty equipment (tools). Possibly they’re overworked because of staff shortages. Maybe they lack the motivation to work because of deplorable working conditions (resources). Perhaps the never-ending high volume of customers makes them too tired to maintain a constant friendly attitude (incentive). Or they may have financial problems at home that are causing them to be distressed and distracted (incentive). Any number of higher level problems could be the real cause of the performance failure rather than a lack of skill. Thus training is not the solution.

Too often companies invest huge amounts of money to provide training that is totally unnecessary or poorly targeted. Companies send people to training to learn how to do things they already know how to do, but are not doing because no one told them it was wanted or expected (information). Training is often used to rectify a problem when the delivery of simple information could resolve it.

Training sometimes is given to people who cannot perform at a higher level, regardless of newly taught skills, because they lack the tools or resources needed to perform at exemplary levels. I’m often amused at companies who send employees to computer training to learn how to use computer equipment to which they don’t have access (tools). At the same time, supervisory training programs that teach complex management methods requiring a lot of time to implement will find the tools are seldom used by overwhelmed managers who are to busy already (resources). In the same fashion, employees who go unnoticed or unrecognized for altering their behavior after they’ve been trained (incentive), may soon abandon those behaviors that don’t receive supportive feedback.

Interestingly, training is one of the least valuable interventions for fixing performance problems. Training should only be provided when an actual deficiency in skills has been identified. When there are actual skill deficiencies it is imperative to determine the best type of training and the best method of delivery for the specific skills that are lacking. Classroom training often is the least effective method of training, while on-the-job training usually is the most valuable way to transfer skills.

Block Five

As mentioned above, the fifth block is CAPACITY. Capacity is the physical and mental ability to perform the job to satisfaction.

Some employees may lack the mental or physical capacity to perform to standard, but capacity issues seldom are a problem. Even if an employee has a specific disability, most capacity failures can be overridden with a tool or resource. Equipment can be altered so an employee with a disability can operate it effectively. A prosthesis can replicate the performance of an incapacitated limb. The work environment also can be adapted or reshaped to meet the physical requirements of an employee with a disability. For example, flexible scheduling may help by matching the peak physical or mental capacity periods of an employee.

There are a plethora of tools available to help overcome mental deficiencies such as memory lapses, poor math skills, poor decision making abilities, or other perceived mental inadequacies. For example, a checklist helps people remember things they may forget. A calculator accurately computes the math for those who have problems with numbers. A decision tree takes a person through the logical process for devising an acceptable solution to a problem.

If a tool or resource is unavailable to overcome a capacity failure, either the job requirements can be adapted to the capacity of the employee or the employee can be moved to a job that better suits one's capacity. In many companies there is a job that matches the physical and mental capacity of most people.

Block Six

As can be seen, most employee performance problems are caused by a lack of information, tools, resources, incentive, proper training, or the alteration of the job to match the capacity of the employee. When all of the elements from the first five boxes are provided by management, the odds are great that employee will be motivated to perform to standard.

However, if, after a manager has done all he or she can do in the first five boxes, an employee still exhibits a deficiency in MOTIVATION, MORALE, ATTITUDE or WORK ETHIC (block six), then there is only one action the manager can take to rectify the situation. The employee is not motivated because he doesn’t want to be motivated. He has a bad attitude because that is the type of attitude he has. The employee has a poor work ethic because he does not want to work.

If this truly is the case, the manager should make it so the employee doesn’t have to worry about coming to work each day. The employee should be deselected. (Meaning: “I selected you to work here because I thought you would work. Since you are not working, I no longer select you.”)

If an employee really is not motivated or has low morale, truly does have a poor attitude, or doesn’t want to work, then the manager should help that employee achieve their objective to not work. The manager should remove them from the place that is causing them to have a bad attitude or to feel unmotivated.

Managers that truly have done everything within their power to establish a productive work environment wherein employees could be motivated if they wanted to be motivated should not hesitate or feel bad about terminating employees who are not motivated.

The key question, of course, is whether or not the manager has done everything possible to help the employee to perform well. Getting productive work from people is not so much a matter of having motivated employees as it is one of having supportive management. Managers can help employees become more competent when the managers view their job as largely manipulating the work environment (rather than the motivations of the employees) in order to achieve greater employee competence.

Managers themselves increase their own competency when they let their employees know what is expected of them, give them adequate guidance to perform well, supply them with the finest tools and resources, reward them well, and give them useful training. Competent employees are a result of competent management.

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Innovative Management Group offers a highly effective management course designed around the Six Block Model. If you would like more information about how you can use the Six Block Model to create competent employees in your company, or for a free Troubleshooting Guide that identifies the real cause of performance problems, please contact Innovative Management Group at 702-258-8334 or by e-mail at mac@imglv.com Also visit our website at www.imglv.com

If you would like to find out how to create competent managers, please request a copy of the article entitled: “How to Create Competent Managers.”

How to Develop Competent Managers

Every organization has its share of good managers and bad managers. Unfortunately, in some companies the number of bad managers far exceeds the number of good ones.

Some people have the title of “manager” yet never seem to effectively fulfill the manager’s role. They never move up to thinking and acting like managers. Instead they are mere glorified workers, receiving supervisory pay but doing very few supervisory tasks. They still do the work, but do very little managing.

How can you tell if you are a real manager?

True managers, good managers, competent managers, know how to manage. They know how to motivate their employees to perform at the desired level and can maintain that performance continually. They communicate their expectations and hold people accountable for their actions. They regularly assess the performance of their employees and give constant feedback so people know where they stand at all times. They recognize the accomplishments of their workers and actively coach people who need improvement. They take their employees to the next level so no one stagnates in their job.

Based upon my observations of good and bad managers over the past 35 years, I've identified Eight Core Competencies of Management® that separate real managers from those who are managers in title only. The extent to which you model these eight competencies is the extent to which you are a good manager. The extent to which you are weak in these areas is the extent to which you are a poor manager. If you cannot perform these eight tasks competently, you are not really managing, regardless of your title.

The first quality of management competency is the ability to clearly and specifically identify the performance you want from your employees. This includes the specific job skills, job knowledge, work behaviors and attitude necessary to perform at the desired level. This competency literally entails the ability to identify how you want your employees to look, sound, feel and act like while they are performing their job tasks. It is the ability to stipulate exactly what you want, when you want it, how you want it, where you want it, and why.

It is almost impossible for employees to perform at an acceptable level if expectations are not clear – unless you actually expect a low level of performance. Of course, only an incompetent manager would accept unsatisfactory performance from those within their stewardship.

The second competency of true management is the ability to effectively communicate what you want to your employees so they know exactly what is expected. This is more than just telling your workers what you want. It is communicating your performance and behavioral expectations so completely there is no possible confusion about what the employees need to do to perform well.

The best time to communicate your expectations is while you are interviewing job candidates for open positions. It lets people know before they are hired what is expected and helps you and the potential employee discern whether or not the individual is a match for the organization.

Once employees are already on staff, communicating performance expectations is an ongoing process. It continues with new employee orientation, is reinforced during on-the-job training, and is a significant part of the daily interactions between you and your employees. Performance expectations ought to be reinforced in staff meetings, emphasized in interoffice memorandums, and noted in departmental and company publications.

Once you know the exact performance you want and can communicate it to others, you now can either hire what you want or train to what you want.

It would be wonderful, of course, if you could find enough people who already match your expectations, and then just hire them. But usually that’s not possible. Consequently, as a manager you need the skill to both hire the right people and to train less skilled workers so they can attain the level of performance you expect.

It takes a special skill to be able to identify during the interview process the exact qualifications and competencies job candidates possess. Many candidates are adept at telling you what you want to hear during the interview while hiding their weaknesses. Later, after these individuals are on staff, you discover you purchased a flawed product. When that happens, you need to be skilled in raising the proficiency of less competent employees through properly designed and executed training processes. Competent managers are good trainers. They have the ability to take people who lack the proper skills, knowledge and abilities and raise those individuals to a higher level of proficiency. Competent managers have structured processes to orient and train new employees and certify they can perform at acceptable levels.

During the hiring and training processes you also need to provide the employees with the information, tools and resources they need to perform to the expected level. Employees who lack adequate information, tools or resources cannot perform their jobs well regardless of their skills, knowledge and abilities. The quality of a chef's food is only as good as his pots and pans. A front desk clerk at a hotel cannot go any faster than her computer. The checkout lines at the grocery store are as long or short as the number of cashiers on staff allows. A salesperson cannot effectively sell merchandise without good product information.

After your employees are hired, trained and performing their job tasks, you should regularly measure and monitor employee performance to ensure you are getting what you want. This is more than empirical or assumptive analysis. It is the ability to competently assess the cause and effect relationship between what an employee does and what he or she produces. It is the ability to discern outcomes and results as they directly correlate to the actions and performance of the employee.

The ability to tell exactly how an employee achieved his or her results is a key component of managing performance. If you, as a manager, lack the competency to identify how work behaviors impact production, you have no way to replicate the behaviors that achieve positive outcomes. You also lack the insight to discard behaviors that are non-productive or dysfunctional. Competent managers are adept at measuring performance. They constantly monitor each employee to ensure he or she is performing to standard.

As you measure and monitor employee performance you also need the ability to give effective feedback to your workers. Not surprisingly, many managers are deficient in this core management competency. Some managers seem incapable of expressing their gratitude and appreciation to those employees who perform well. They act as if their feedback philosophy is one of “no news is good news.” Other managers are hesitant to reprimand employees who need corrective counseling. They act as if ignoring the problem will somehow make it go away.

Competent managers, the ones who really are managing, constantly interact with their employees. They reinforce and encourage workers who are doing well. They give ongoing support, guidance and instruction to those who need improvement. They are not hesitant to confront poor performers. They do not shirk the primary responsibility of a manager, which is to ensure employees are continually performing at the desired level.

This means to be an effective manager you must have the ability to recognize and reward those who give you what you want or to coach, counsel, discipline or terminate those who don’t.

Amazingly, some managers reward employees regardless of the level of their performance. They write generic performance appraisals and give blanket pay increases with no noticeable link to actual performance. They allow off-purpose behaviors and unacceptable job performance to continue rather than confronting problem employees. Or, worse yet, they ignore both poor performers and exceptional employees, creating disheartening conditions where good performance goes unrewarded and bad performance goes unchecked.

Competent managers let people know where they stand. They reinforce good performance and correct those who may be off track. They provide ongoing feedback to each employee. They never allow an employee to wander from the desired path. They are so clear in their feedback employees never wonder where they are. Each employee knows at all times if he or she is winning.

Finally, the last competency is the ability to provide career counseling and developmental opportunities so your employees can give you even more of what you want. Competent managers don't allow their employees to plateau. They make sure employee performance gets better year-over-year. They expect their employees to continuously improve and ensure it happens by managing competently.

The level of your success, or competency, as a manger is determined by whether you increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your employees so they can produce more. Your success is measured by your employees’ success. The more productive they are, the more competent you are as a manager.

You were hired to improve your department, to take it to the next level, to go beyond what is currently being done. Your department, and each employee within it, ought to be better because of you. Ask yourself whether your department is better now, with you as the manager, than it was before you became the department head. Is it better now than it was last year? Are your subordinates better than they were before you became their leader? Are your employees better this year than they were last year?

Competent managers constantly assess the strengths and weaknesses of their employees. They understand each employee’s known and potential capabilities. They meet with their employees to discuss their personal and professional goals. They know what each person wants to achieve in his or her career. Good managers help their employees map out a developmental plan and/or career path. They design developmental opportunities that raise their employees to the next level and get them to produce even more for the company.

That's it! Eight competencies. Eight qualities that determine whether you are a competent manager.

To be deemed a competent manager you must be proficient in all eight of these critical skills. A weakness in one or more of the core competencies will adversely impact any relative strength in the others. Your adeptness at giving feedback is diminished if you haven’t clearly communicated what you want beforehand. Being good at measuring and monitoring performance is meaningless if your recognition and reward systems are not tied to specific results. And, of course, if you can’t hire properly or train your employees to perform at acceptable levels, all of your competently designed discipline processes will be of little worth.

One last thing. Competent managers constantly monitor their own performance. They introspectively assess whether or not they are doing all they can to competently manage their employees. They realize that competent employees are a result of competent management.

If you are lacking in any of these eight competencies, Innovative Management Group offers a three-day intensive management training course, called the Accountability Management Workshop, that focuses on the eight core competencies of management. At the core of the workshop is a powerful explanatory model called the Ladder of Commitment®. This insightful tool explains how to get high levels of enthusiasm and commitment from employees by addressing the things that matter most in the workplace.

To perform well employees need information about the goals and direction of the business. They need clarification of their roles, responsibilities, performance expectations and authority level in order to perform to exemplary standards. They also need accurate feedback so they can either continue their productive actions or cease off-purpose performance that is below standard.

During the workshop you are given other helpful diagnostic and intervention
tools to better manage your employees’ performance. IMG’s Six Block Model™ shows you how to discern the true root cause of performance problems so you can focus your energy on correct interventions. The Field of Play™ lays out exact performance expectations, standards and boundaries so there is no confusion on what performance is required.

Finally, almost one-third of the workshop deals with teaching you how to give effective performance feedback to your employees. Obviously there is no accountability if people are not held accountable. A major part of management accountability is meeting face to face with your employees so they can report on their work-related stewardship. Managers who fail to regularly meet with their employees one-on-one to address performance issues are not really managing.

One of the great drawbacks to management training and a primary reason why managers often fail to implement what they learn is the lack of time at work to alter their management practices. Most managers today are working managers. They not only manage, they also have to perform tasks and produce output similar to their employees. Thus, they are required to both work and manage. Unfortunately, given limited time during the work day, most managers tend to focus on getting the work done and neglect the management aspects of their job.

The Accountability Management Workshop is designed so you not only learn the eight core management competencies, but you actually create your performance management structure and framework during the session. This means less “office time” outside of the training is spent on the administrative tasks that are required to establish the foundation of a comprehensive performance management system. Most of the “work” necessary to manage people is accomplished in the workshop. You leave the session fully prepared and ready to manage. You leave holding yourself accountable to perform your role and truly become a competent manager.


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If you would like more information about Innovative management Groups' highly-effective Accountability Management Workshop, which provides managers with the tools and skills of all eight management competencies, please call us at 702-258-8334 or by e-mail at mac@imglv.com Also visit our website at www.imglv.com

If you would like to find out how to create competent employees, email me and I will send you a free copy of my article entitled: “How to Create Competent Employees.”

Six Steps to Recover From Service Errors

No matter how well you design your products or refine the customer service skills of your employees there still will be times when your customers are dissatisfied with your company.

Even “five star” properties and companies known to produce superior quality merchandise have product defects and service lapses. No one can satisfy all of their customers all of the time. But the truly successful companies know how to recover from their service mistakes. They know how to turn around dissatisfied customers so they leave happy and remain loyal to the business.

There are six things you can do to recover from service mistakes.

First, apologize for the error. The more serious the infraction, the more profuse the apology should be. Express sincere regret for the difficulty or inconvenience the error has caused the customer. Accept responsibility, even if you are not personally responsible for the mistake. The customer does not care who is responsible. They expect you to make amends and fix it.

Unfortunately, some service providers see an apology as a sign of weakness or an admission of guilt. They hesitate to apologize for something someone else has done. Yet a sincere, first-person apology is the fastest and simplest way to minimize a customer’s irritation and recover from service mistakes.

Customers with problems are miffed. Although they eventually want action to be taken to rectify their problem, customers first need to feel that you understand and accept the “hassle” you’ve caused them. Even though they probably realize you personally may not have caused their problem, they see you as a representative of the enterprise that did. An honest, “I’m sorry that this has happened,” shows that you accept personal responsibility for the mistake, thereby speeding up the recovery process.

After having apologized, you need to listen with empathy and ask open-ended questions to get to the heart of the customer’s concern. Let the customer talk. Be extremely attentive when the customer is explaining the problem. Do not be quick to judge or be in a hurry to move to resolution. Let the customer vent. Sympathize with their situation and acknowledge their concern. Sometimes venting is all the customer needs in order to feel satisfied.

These first two steps in the service recovery process are extremely important. Too often service providers jump too quickly to resolution. For many customers, the resolution of their problem is less important than a simple acknowledgment of their concern. Usually you need to fix the customer before you can fix the problem. Sometimes an immediate apology and a sincere listening ear are all that a customer needs to turn the situation into a positive service experience.

After you’ve identified the customer’s concern, you need to do something about it. Solve the problem quickly and fairly. Find a resolution that is acceptable to the customer. For most service errors a simple apology or replacement of a faulty product is all that is required. Most customers complain merely to bring the problem to your attention so you – the company – can be better. In these cases the customer doesn’t expect anything from you other than your assurance that the problem will not happen again.

However, in more severe service failures, or with extremely difficult customers, you may need to atone for your service transgression. In some situations you must make amends – or suffer as the customer has suffered – before the customer will be satisfied. Your atonement may be a product upgrade, a small gift, a future discount, a free offering, or, in worse case situations, a complete write-off of the product or service.

After telling the customer what you will do to rectify the problem, be sure to keep your promise. Don’t make promises you cannot fulfill. Once you’ve made a promise make sure you carry it out fully. Be sure not to over-promise. It’s always best to under promise and over deliver.

Finally, you need to follow-up. Don’t assume the customer is satisfied just because you fixed the problem. Check with them. Ask if there is anything else that you can do to meet their needs. Don’t consider the situation closed until you know the customer is fully satisfied. If the customer seems content with the solution but still dissatisfied with your company, apologize again. Ask if there is anything else you can do to satisfy them. Listen again with empathy and try to identify other dissatisfiers that you can resolve.

Not all dissatisfied customers can be turned around. But by following these simple steps chances are even your most dissatisfied customers will leave feeling they were treated fairly.

Let me give you an example of two converse situations that happened to me that illustrate how important these steps are to creating loyal customers.

In the first example I had leased a car that turned out to be a lemon. I took the car into the dealership several times for repairs. Each time I returned to the dealership I became more and more dissatisfied as the repairs were not done properly. And each time I received more hassles from the dealership when I brought my car back to be fixed right. I eventually ended up writing a complaint letter to the president of the Chevrolet division in Detroit.

Not once did I receive an apology from the dealership. Not once did I feel the dealership cared about my problem or me. Nor did I receive a follow-up call. But boy, did they atone for their sins. Because of the intervention from Detroit I ended up not having to pay any of the payments on my lease agreement. Yet, even though I basically had a free car for two years, and this happened more than twelve years ago, I’m still peeved at the hassle I had to go through. And, consequently, I have never bought a Chevrolet since then and highly recommend that no one else does either.

An opposite experience occurred several years ago while I was vacationing with my family at Disney World in Florida. We had booked our stay in the apartment-like suites at Disney World Village. As we were getting settled into our suite I noticed the refrigerator in the kitchen did not work. I called the front desk and told them about the refrigerator. The front desk attendant immediately apologized for the inconvenience and said he would have a repairman to my room within 15 minutes. I told him we had not been inconvenienced because we didn’t need to use the refrigerator. I also told him we were leaving to go inside the park, so there was no rush to fix the refrigerator. We would be gone for many hours.

That night when we came back to our room after the park closed we found a fruit basket on our kitchen table next to a handwritten, personally-signed note from the hotel general manager. He first apologized for the inconvenience the broken refrigerator had caused. He then stated what action had been taken to fix the problem. He referenced a small gift-wrapped box that was next to the fruit basket and said it was a small token as an apology for the inconvenience of the broken refrigerator. Inside the box was a porcelain Mickey Mouse statue.

While my wife and I were marveling at all of this, the phone rang. It was the night manager. She said she was calling on behalf of the hotel general manager to apologize for the inconvenience our broken refrigerator had caused. She wanted to know if there was anything else she could do to overcome any dissatisfaction we might have.

How amazing! First, we were never dissatisfied. We weren’t even upset. We really didn’t care whether the refrigerator worked or not. We weren’t planning on using it. I had only called the front desk to let them know so they could fix the refrigerator for the next guest who might use the room.

Second, how did they know we were back in our room at one o’clock in the morning? Sure, the park closed at midnight. But we could have come back early and been long in bed. They must have had someone watching our room. Or they just kept calling every few minutes until they finally reached us. That is what I call amazing follow-up.

It's been almost 15 years since this incident and I still have that porcelain Mickey Mouse sitting prominently on my desk to remind me of the remarkable service we received that day.

In reality, you don’t have to provide the whiz-bang service I received at Disney World. It usually doesn’t take much to turn around dissatisfied customers and maintain their loyalty. You just have to follow six simple steps.

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Innovative Management Group offers one, two and four-hour Customer Service Training courses that teaches customer service skills and service recovery techniques to managers and employees. IMG also offers a one-day “Creating Customer Loyalty” workshop that shows executive leaders how to create a strong service culture designed to attract and retain loyal customers. To find out how to apply these concepts in your business, please call IMG at 702-258-8334, or by e-mail at mac@imglv.com. Also visit our website at www.imglv.com